How much longer can this nonsense go on? President Jacques Chirac warns that France – of all countries – might use nuclear weapons, if attacked. On whom, I wonder? America blows Pakistani children to pieces and claims it has killed five wanted men, including a bomb-maker. But there’s absolutely no evidence.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11621.htm

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Alternate translation of of 01/19/06 Bin Laden tape.

Audio Statement By Sheikh Osama Bin Laden

My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the way to end it. I was not intending to speak about this subject, because for us it’s obvious; blood for blood, and all praise be to Allah, our situation is getting better and better while your situation is the opposite.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11622.htm

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The approaching war with Iran

How real is the Iran nuclear threat to the United States?

By Ed Haas

Given the fact that nuclear power plants are currently operating in 31 countries with 7 more countries in pursuit of atomic energy, is it possible that the United States of America is honestly threatened by Iran seeking nuclear power capabilities?www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11616.htm

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Pakistan: Why Blame America?

By Yamin Zakaria

The US air strikes carried out on the 13th of January 2006, on the remote Pakistani village of Damadola was a clear act of terrorism. Out of the 18 civilians killed, 10 were women and children. It seems US terrorism inside Pakistan is becoming routine, earlier on the 7th of January 2006 at least eight civilians were killed by the US helicopters attack. To be precise, such acts are state-terrorism or primary-terrorism as opposed to the usual: secondary-terrorism of individuals or groups! The bombings were indiscriminate and without warning, like the routine bombings of the defenceless Iraqi cities or the Palestinian villages and towns.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11627.htm

“Our city has become a battlefield,” 35 year-old engineer Fuad Al-Mohandis told IPS at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. “So many of our houses have been destroyed, and the Americans are placing landmines in areas where they think there might be fighters, even though most of the time it is near the homes of innocent civilians.”www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11625.htm

With the billions of dollars appropriated by the United States for Iraqi reconstruction mostly spent, Japan, Australia and other nations in US President George W Bush’s “coalition of the willing” are likely to be asked to shoulder much of the burden for funding the large number of unfinished projects.www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA20Ak02.html

Israel accused Iran and Syria on Friday of planning and funding a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that raised tension before next week’s Palestinian election.tinyurl.com/9ap3s

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ElBaradei rejects EU’s request to condemn Iran :

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN’s nuclear monitor, has turned down a request by the European Union to issue a far-reaching condemnation of Iran’s nuc–lear programme when the agency’s board meets in extraordinary session next month.news.ft.com/cms/s/ca550f44-891d-11da-94a6-0000779e2340.html

Soaring fuel prices, rumours of winter power cuts, panic over the gas supply from Russia, abrupt changes to forecasts of crude output… Is something sinister going on? Yes, says former oil man Jeremy Leggett, and it’s time to face the fact that the supplies we so depend on are going to run outnews.independent.co.uk/environment/article339928.ece

Breaking more than a year’s silence, Osama bin Laden warned Americans in an audiotape released on Thursday that Al Qaeda was planning more attacks on the United States, but he offered a “long truce” on undefined terms.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11619.htm

A former Pentagon analyst was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison on Friday for passing U.S. defense information to two pro-Israel lobbyists and for sharing classified information with an Israeli diplomat.tinyurl.com/c5sge

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Pity the Region :

America has a starring role in The Great War for Civilisation and it is not a flattering one. She is America, righteous of voice but tone-deaf to history, jealous of power but so entwined with Israel that she sometimes reads the other character’s lines as her own.www.thenation.com/doc/20060206/norton

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Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela will assist Bolivia:

Hugo Chávez, declared that the three countries are preparing an urgent program to assist the new president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Chavez said he wanted something on paper by Sunday (January 22), in time for Morales’ inaugurationtinyurl.com/d2aa8

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CIA warned its operatives to stay out of Italy, according to e-mail:

The CIA warned its operatives to stay out of Italy after learning that Italian prosecutors were preparing to seek arrest warrants in the agency’s 2003 kidnapping of a radical Muslim preacher, according to an e-mail message recovered from the computer drive of the chief suspect in the case.www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13665883.htm

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The CIA is engaging in an unlawful practice ˆ‰extraordinary rendition‰:

The Bush administration wants its multibillion-dollar aid programmes to serve its foreign policy goals better. Critics are worried that by in effect merging USAID into the State Department, the agency will lose some of its independence, and development will become purely politicised.tinyurl.com/7q352

The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date on Thursday of the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter future terrorist attacks “places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the NSA activities.”tinyurl.com/exac7

President Bush’s latest tool for disrespecting the Constitution, Congress and the American people, used more than a hundred times so far, is the presidential signing statement.www.post-gazette.com/pg/06020/641039.stm

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Tripping Up on Trips: Judges Love Junkets as Much as Tom DeLay Does :

The judicial seminars are conducted under the innocuous-sounding banner of “judicial education.” In reality, these slanted multiday sessions mock the ideal of an independent, impartial judiciary, and pose a threat to the appearance and reality of judicial integrity.www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/opinion/20fri4.html?pagewanted=print

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Charles Sullivan : Talking Revolution :

We will never have a just society by being silent and remaining ignorant. We have no rational choice but to open our eyes and to see things as they really are. We have a moral obligation not only to speak out against injustice; we have an obligation to act against it. That is our duty as citizens; it is our duty as servants of justice and peace.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11626.htm

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When it comes to spin, Washington is no match for Wall Street. : .

Ignored was the fact that November’s deficit was still the third largest monthly deficit ever, and regardless of expectations, an unmitigated economic disaster. Such a “celebration” is akin to a student celebrating an “F‰ on his report card, as it represents an improvement on the “F-” earned the prior semester.www.prudentbear.com/internationalperspective.asp

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USDA blocks real probes, records fake ones:

The Department of Agriculture has effectively blocked employees from pursuing complaints of anti-competitive behavior in the livestock industry and inflated the number of investigations it has conducted to make it appear it is vigorously upholding the law, the department’s inspector general reported Wednesday.tinyurl.com/dgen9

Abstract: the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse will accelerate the fall of the American Empire.

By Krassimir Petrov, Ph.D.

A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a better and stronger military.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11613.htm

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The Poisoning of the Well

By Manuel Valenzuela

At a time when millions needed to find solace and answers to the evil witnessed on 9/11 Christian extremism opened its doors. When the world was spinning out of control, bursting America’s bubble of security, fundamentalist Christianity took full advantage, absorbing those wanting to understand why God had allowed such wickedness upon our shoreswww.informationclearinghouse.info/article11609.htm

Thirty people were dragged from their cars Wednesday and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 50 miles north of the capital, said police Lt. Qahtan al-Hashmawi.tinyurl.com/a96e4

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2 Bombings On Same Baghdad Street Kill 23:

A suicide attacker detonated an explosive vest in a crowded downtown coffee shop Thursday and another bomb exploded seconds later under a nearby car, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, police and hospital officials said.www.wral.com/apworldnews/6239692/detail.html

Iraqi officials say they have asked U.S. forces to release six of eight Iraqi female prisoners, but they say the move is not related to the demand of a militant group that kidnapped an American journalist.www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-19-voa21.cfm

My message to you is about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to end them. I did not intend to speak to you about this because this issue has already been decided. Only metal breaks metal, and our situation, thank God, is only getting better and better, while your situation is the opposite of that.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11615.htm

Described by The New Yorker as ‘one of the greatest minds of the 20th century’, Noam Chomsky gave the 2006 Amnesty Lecture, hosted by Trinity College Dublin, on January 18th. The theme of the lecture was ‘The War on Terror’.www.amnesty.ie/user/content/view/full/5051

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Military Attack against Iran Now Imminent :

World renowned investigative reporter and terror expert, reveals that the US and Israel will destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities in less than 10 weeks from now.www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=96976

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Iranian president in Damascus to consolidate alliance with Syria:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a visit to Syria Thursday to consolidate an old alliance made increasingly crucial as both countries face mounting U.S. pressure and the threat of international sanctions.tinyurl.com/cyz93

Despite the complete absence of coverage from the five U.S. corporate media conglomerates, these foreign news stories suggest one of the Federal Reserve’s nightmares may begin to unfold in the spring of 2006, when it appears that international buyers will have a choice of buying a barrel of oil for $60 dollars on the NYMEX and IPE – or purchase a barrel of oil for •45 – •50 euros via the Iranian Bourse.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9698.htm

Israel is stepping up its campaign against Iran’s nuclear ambitions and is in ‘advanced talks’ with the United States and European countries over a package of sanctions that would be applied against Iran should it continue its nuclear programme.tinyurl.com/8fxjy

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday hired American political strategist, John McLaughlin, to work as his party’s campaign advisor and pollster in the upcoming general elections.www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/672083.html

Pentagon sources confirmed that officials are reviewing an agreement with Nigeria that would have marines protect oil facilities because of the growing battle between Nigerian armed forces and insurgents.www.independentng.com/news/nnjan190602.htm

The electronic voting machines leave virtually no paper trail and their use involves private potentially partisan corporations tabulating the votes with proprietary software that is not transparent.www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts140.html

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John Pilger :Australia: A First-Rate Country Run By Second-Rate People:

Like Bush’s America, Howard’s Australia is not so much a democracy as a plutocracy, governed for and by the “big end of town”, even though, as Mark Twain pointed out, this is “an entire continent peopled by the lower orders”.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11612.htm

The Abramoff scandal has been described as the biggest Washington scandal ever – True reform is impossible without addressing the immorality of wealth redistribution. Merely electing new leaders and writing more rules to regulate those who petition Congress will achieve nothing.www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr011806.htm

A high-level intelligence assessment by the Bush administration concluded in early 2002 that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was “unlikely” because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles, according to a secret memo that was recently declassified by the State Department.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11603.htm

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US Franchised Torture Refuses To Go Away

By Gajendra Singh

It is not the divine right of Christian West to subjugate and rule the Middle East, Africa or Asia through the power of its guns. The Iraqi resistance to U.S.-led occupation from the very beginning has made it clear that the era of colonization is over.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11601.htm

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Colin Powell, talks about Iran, rendition, the decisions that took the US and Britain to war

By BBC

Jeremy Paxman, has been speaking to Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell – about Iran, rendition, the decisions that took the US and Britain to war, and that notorious presentation to the United Nations on Iraq’s weapons programme.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 Iraqis are killed every month, rendering “ridiculous” US President George W. Bush’s estimate of about 30,000 civilian casualties since the start of the war, veteran British journalist Robert Fisk said Wednesdaywww.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=5971

As recruiters struggle to overcome the national aversion to military service that has gripped the country, their superiors wrestle to pin down the underlying reasons behind this failure of the American people to heed the call of the trumpet.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11605.htm

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Iran scorns EU trio’s draft nuclear resolution:

European powers began circulating a draft resolution on Wednesday that asks the U.N. nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the Security Council, drawing a scornful response from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.tinyurl.com/dpzkv

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China, Russia would fight Iran oil sanctions: experts:

U.N. Security Council heavyweights China and Russia have too much riding on Iran’s energy sector to let the West slap sanctions on Tehran to punish its nuclear ambitions, experts say.tinyurl.com/98xsu

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Moscow Will Not Follow West’s Cue on Iran:

Moscow has signaled a change in its stance toward Tehran. In recent days, officials including Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov have indicated they would not block a Security Council referral, although they would likely still oppose sanctionsmosnews.com/interview/2006/01/17/westsque.shtml

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The west has picked a fight with Iran that it cannot win :

Iran is a serious country, not another two-bit post-imperial rogue waiting to be slapped about the head by a white man. It is the fourth largest oil producer in the world. Its population is heading towards 80 million by 2010. Its capital, Tehran, is a mighty metropolis half as big again as London.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11604.htm

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Noam Chomsky : Iran would be “crazy‰ not to develop nuclear weapons. :

The toppling of Iran’s theocratic regime would consolidate dwindling resources under the stars and stripes and guarantee continued supremacy of US financial institutions, American energy giants, and the faltering greenback. Additionally, it would defang a potential rival to an emergent Israel, which sees itself as the prevailing power in the region.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11607.htm

As of January 2006, the U.S. stockpile contains almost 10,000 nuclear warheads. This includes 5,735 active or operational warheads: 5,235 strategic and 500 nonstrategic warheads. Approximately 4,225 additional warheads are held in the reserve or inactive stockpileswww.thebulletin.org/article_nn.php?art_ofn=jf06norris

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Another Witness Testifies with Perjury into Assassination of Hariri :

The witness Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura said he was forced to offer a false and fabricated testimony against Syria at the international investigation committee into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri because he was under threats and pressures to do so.www.sana.org/index743c205defee8ce4e232662550926c76.html

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US freezes assets of Syrian intelligence chief:

The United States on Wednesday froze the U.S. assets of Syrian military intelligence director Asef Shawkat, accusing him of fomenting terrorism against Israel and backing Syria’s intrusion in Lebanon.tinyurl.com/9cjap

After days of skirmishes in Hebron, which saw teenage settlers vandalising Palestinian property in the town and hurling rocks at the Israeli police, the local media had talked of an “Israeli intifada”.tinyurl.com/85fc3

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Leading candidates for high post in House are both strong on Israel :

Tom DeLay’s Jewish friends ˜ and enemies ˜ can expect the same friendliness to Israel and affection for faith-based funding from whomever replaces him as majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11599.htm

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Taliban say ‘hundreds’ of suicide attackers ready:

A Taliban commander said on Tuesday hundreds of his guerrillas were ready to launch suicide attacks across Afghanistan to drive out foreign forces.tinyurl.com/8rbhc

Abramoff had “a few staff-level meetings” at the Bush White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. But he would not say with whom Abramoff met, which interests he was representing or how he got access to the White Housetinyurl.com/djszt

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Abramoff Met With Bush In May 2001 ;

The Texas Observer reports that Abramoff met with Bush on May 9, 2001, with his clients, the Coushatta tribe. (The chairman of the Coushatta tribe initially denied the meeting occured, but subsequently admitted that it did.) Abramoff charged his client 25,000 to arrange the meeting.thinkprogress.org/2006/01/07/abramoff-bush-2001/

Former vice president Al Gore gave what I believe to be the most important political speech in my lifetime, and the New York Times, “the newspaper of record,” did not report it. Not even excerpts.www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts141.html

The U.S. trade deficit is a bigger threat to the domestic economy than either the federal budget deficit or consumer debt and could lead to “political turmoil,” billionaire investor Warren Buffett warned.tinyurl.com/9wdps

Until the latter days of 2001 President Bush’s skeletal talents for peacetime democracy were creaking out of the closet and down the ravine of opinion polls. He was a Hoover in the making (the president or the vacuum, your pick). Osama bin Laden to the rescue. His one-hit wonder on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did wonders for a presidency looking for salvation. And the most imperial presidency in the nation’s history was off on its wolves’ hunt, with democracy for a battle flag.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11596.htm

The U.S. Agency for International Development paints a dire and detailed picture of the Iraq security situation in its request for contractors to bid on its $1.32 billion, 28-month project to help stabilize 10 major Iraqi cities.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11586.htm

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Jazeera airs video of kidnapped US journalist:

The abductors of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll have threatened to kill her if the United States does not free Iraqi women prisoners within 72 hours, Al Jazeera television said on Tuesdaytinyurl.com/b2pmf

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Shocking War Admission From Colin Powell:

In a candid interview just hours ago, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talks about mistakes made in the decision to go to war with Iraq. “We were wrong,” Powell says.wjz.com/local/local_story_017073122.html

President Bush’s efforts to spread democracy to the Middle East have strengthened Islamists across the region, posing fresh challenges for the United States, according to U.S. officials, foreign diplomats and democracy experts.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11591.htm

Elsewhere in the government, it is standard practice to engage in an elaborate cost-benefit analysis for major projects. The war in Iraq was a war of choice, an immense “project,” and yet it now appears that there was virtually no analysis of the likely costs of a prolonged occupation.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11595.htm

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Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds Go Untraced:

The Coalition Provisional Authority, which existed from shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 until June 2004, was allocated more than $38 billion in U.S. and Iraqi funds. It spent $19.7 billion of U.N.-administered Iraqi oil moneytinyurl.com/czntp

U.S.-based humanitarian groups are urging the administration of President George W. Bush to compensate the families of innocent Iraqi citizens killed as a result of aerial bombings by the U.S. military.us.oneworld.net/article/view/125635/1/

-Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Iran hasn’t excluded the possibility of conducting its uranium enrichment in Russia – a proposal that could be a way out of escalating tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.tinyurl.com/bfhvy

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Russian FM against Iranian sanctions :

“Sanctions are in no way the best, or the only way to solve the problem (with Iran). We remember the history of the sanctions regime against Iraq, and we know how it ended.tinyurl.com/92m55

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Iran crisis talks expose west’s split with China :

The London meeting between senior officials from the US, Britain, France, China and Russia – the five permanent members of the UN security council – plus Germany, was held to try to avoid a repetition of the security council divisions that marked the run-up to the war in Iraq. The west’s fear is that China could exercise its veto on Iran’s behalf.www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1687928,00.html

Republican and Democratic senators said on Sunday the United States may ultimately have to undertake a military strike to deter Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but that should be the last resort.www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15194172.htm

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has allowed CNN to resume operating in the country after the American cable news network apologised for mistakenly quoting him saying Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons, State radio reported on Tuesdaytinyurl.com/cxamv

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Iran Has an ‘Inalienable Right’ to Nuclear Energy:

Iran has an “inalienable right” to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes such as the production of electric energy, and the enrichment of uranium for its nuclear reactors. Could it be that Iran’s plan for an oil exchange trading in Euros is the real issue? Or is it Israel?www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11589.htm

An ever-more-desperate Dick Cheney is pulling out all the stops to install “Clean Break” hawk Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu as the next Israeli Prime Minister, to push for an immediate confrontation between Israel and Syria.www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3303cheney_bibi.html

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Report: Germany provided passports to Mossad agents :

A spokesman for the BND confirmed that his organization is cooperating with the Mossad, but refused to respond to the reported information that the organization supplied the Mossad with passports.www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/671448.html

A suicide bomber yesterday rode into town, killing at least 20 in the deadliest insurgent attack since the US invasion. More than 1,600 were killed in 2005, and the murder rate is rising. The rule of law has collapsed. The government is trapped in its own fortified compound in the capital.news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article339090.ece

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Chinese Detainees’ Lawyers Will Take Case to High Court:

Lawyers for a group of Chinese nationals held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with no hope of release are taking the rare step of asking the Supreme Court to intervene immediately, saying only the high court can resolve the constitutional crisis their case presents.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11590.htm

Former Vice President Al Gore called Monday for an independent investigation of President Bush’s domestic spying program, contending the president “repeatedly and persistently” broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11588.htm

For a constitutional confrontation at least five years in the making, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee looked as prepared to confront Samuel Alito as FEMA chief Michael Brown did in responding to Hurricane Katrina.tinyurl.com/8hrwn

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Enabling Danger:

The press has recently been reporting on the issue of surveillance pertaining to four “key” 9/11 hijackers. Specifically, Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) has gone public with accusations that the Pentagon had four of the 9/11 hijackers under its surveillance in December of 2000.tinyurl.com/9n8x2

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Charles Sullivan : In Defense of Progressive Values :

In reality America no longer has two major political parties˜the Democrats and the Republicans. Sometime ago these two parties merged into a single party that only represents the interests of wealth and power.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11594.htm

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Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends :

As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about “whether the program had a proper legal foundation,” but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11587.htm

Bachelet’s 53.5 percent to Pinera’s 46.5 percent marked a trend throughout Latin America of leftist electoral victories. Leftists now run Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela, with the inclusion of Chile, the political sentiment of the region is unmistakable.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11597.htm

California has executed a blind, deaf 76-year-old wheelchair-bound man through lethal injection after the US Supreme Court and the state’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused his appeals for clemency in a case that is stoking the capital punishment debate.service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,395675,00.html

=
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason”: Thomas Paine – Common Sense -[January 10, 1776]www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11567.htm

United Nations sanctions won’t work but there’s still plenty of time for patient talks.

By Gwynne Dyer

When the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed last Tuesday that Iran had broken the seals on its nuclear research facility at Natanz, many people reacted as if the very next step was the testing of an Iranian nuclear weapon.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11569.htm

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More Lies about Iran

By Mike Whitney

The Bush administration does not accept the internationally-recognized treaty rights of Iran because it believes that all law flows from Washington; a fact that is tragically evident in its torturing of prisoners, spying on American citizens, and its vast destruction of Iraq.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11572.htm

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Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified

By Norman G. Finkelstein

The recent proposal that Norway boycott Israeli goods has provoked passionate debate. In my view, a rational examination of this issue would pose two questions: 1) Do Israeli human rights violations warrant an economic boycott? and 2) Can such a boycott make a meaningful contribution toward ending these violations? I would argue that both these questions should be answered in the affirmative.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11574.htm

The acclaimed critic of U.S. foreign policy analyzes Bush’s current political troubles, the war on Iraq, and what’s really behind the global ‘war on terror.’www.alternet.org/story/30487/

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Pakistan fury as CIA airstrike on village kills 18:

Pakistan is preparing to lodge a formal diplomatic protest over the attack, which killed at least 18 people, because it was launched from four pilotless aircraft which intruded 30 miles into Pakistani air space from Afghanistantinyurl.com/c6zno

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US policies “break human rights law”:

“The strategy in place today respects neither human rights nor the Geneva Conventions,” said Dick Marty, the head of a European investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe. “The current administration in Washington is trying to combat terrorism outside legal means, the rule of law.”tinyurl.com/973xx

IN ONE of the stream of speeches in which George W. Bush is now trying to defend his ill-fated invasion of Iraq, this week he let loose a sentence that should light all the red lights. In this sentence he castigated his opponents for asserting that he had attacked Iraq “for the oil and for Israel”.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11570.htm

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Mossad works with German passports:

Israeli agents camouflage themselves with delicate employments in Middle East crisis areas also with German passports and German legends. At present use the Mossad German travel documents for instance with employments in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It concerns among other things a preparation of possible air raids on Iranian goalstinyurl.com/b462s

Police arrested on Sunday the number-two man on the Hamas party list for the upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections, Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir. Two candidates for the Hamas list in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Tutah and Ahmed Atun, were also arrested.www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/670259.html

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Hebron settlers: No calm unless eviction orders rescinded :

A senior official of the settler community of Hebron has said that the only way that there will be calm in the West Bank city is if Israeli authorities rescind the eviction orders issued to eight Jewish families who have occupied Palestinian-owned homes in Hebron’s wholesale market area for years.www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/670191.html

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How to buy friends and influence politics

“Now here’s the thing,” commented Iraq expert Juan Cole. “If a Palestinian-American had diverted $140,000 from a Muslim charity to ‘security equipment’ and ‘sniper lessons’ for Palestinians on the West Bank, that individual would be in Gitmo so fast that the sonic boom would rattle your windows…www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11571.htm

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Ethics Committees Won’t Commit to Action :

The leaders of Congress’ ethics committees are not committing to any investigation of misconduct despite the growing revelations about the favors that lobbyist Jack Abramoff won for clients and the largesse he arranged for lawmakers.www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5547759,00.html

You would think that Senators Carl Levin and John McCain would have learned by now that you cannot deal in good faith with a White House that does not act in good faith. Yet both men struck bargains intended to restore the rule of law to American prison camps. And President Bush tossed them aside at the first opportunity.www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11575.htm